The operator Free manages to cover the Alcatel Submarine Networks plant in Calais, over an area of 50,000 m², using multiple 5G access points. It is the culmination of a two-year project, which will have required the investment of several million euros.
Direction Calais, where Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), a French subsidiary of the Finnish group Nokia, has a huge site with a total area of 160,000 m², entirely dedicated to the production of submarine cables. Each year, the factory produces, tests, stores and then assembles more than 50,000 km of cables. ASN is now seeing the culmination of its “Industry 4.0 project”, which is strengthening the site’s performance, thanks to 5G infrastructures and applications piloted by the Free Mobile and Free Pro teams. Let’s study this more closely.
The largest 5G connected factory in Europe
ASN’s Industry 4.0 project was launched two years ago, with the aim of remaining competitive on the submarine communication network market, to allow better management of the life cycle of products and to facilitate decision-making, thanks to the data. Thanks to this project, the company is now able to improve ” the efficiency, quality, traceability and safety of its operations “.
The plan will have been financed to the tune of several million euros by the government, all within the framework of the Recovery Plan and the Future Investments Programme. Among the components of the project, we find this private 5G infrastructure, which forms the basis of the transformation of the Calais plant. Eleven of the factory buildings are covered in 5G.
Around Nokia, Free Mobile uses part of its 5G spectrum and was able to help identify coverage needs, not to mention the crucial step of deploying the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) network platform. The latter offers industrial-grade private 5G network connectivity, as well asedge computing. The Free Pro subsidiary, for its part, supports the solution and interconnects the private 5G network to the information system of Alcatel Submarine Networks, to its Cloud infrastructures and to its business applications.
On the way to Industry 4.0
The ASN Calais site has 57 indoor 5G access points and two outdoor 5G access points. The deployment of the 5G infrastructure on the site was also carried out in two stages: first by covering the loading docks of the cable ships and two buildings of the factory, then by covering seven additional buildings.
Security is one of the major benefits of this private 5G network. Only people who have a specific SIM card can use this network. Autonomy is another priority, since the connectivity of the network remains independent of that of the national network of the operators, with its own capacities. The hardware layer is also very important, with increased use of connected objects (tablets, glasses, sensors) which make it possible to collect, in real time, data on the production workshops.
Several 5G applications are already operational on the northern site, such as the digitization of manufacturing procedures, which until now were done on paper; real-time filling measurement of the 130 fiber optic cable storage tanks (with reliable measurements to within 1 mm); remote maintenance assistance; energy monitoring, which optimizes resource management; as well as the analysis of production incidents.
Sources: Free, Nokia
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